A variety of systems for generating electricity have been made and used over the years in a variety of contexts. For instance, electrical power can be generated through combustion of fossil fuels, such as, natural gas, gasoline, and coal, but such fuel combustion can be accompanied by harmful emissions, e.g., nitrogen oxides, sulfurous acid, carbonaceous particulates, that may be both difficult and expensive to either contain, or remove, from the exhaust gasses. Further, the processing of these fuels sometimes requires the expenditure of additional energy, that can make the process inefficient, costly, and potentially hazardous, and further creates harmful emissions.
Nuclear power plants are another source for generating electrical power, and may be viewed as an alternative source to hydrocarbon fuels. Nuclear power plants may use the energy generated from a fission chain reaction of uranium fuel to heat up cooling water into steam at high temperature and high pressure, so as to push a steam turbine which drives a generator to produce power, thereby achieving an effect of generating the electricity. While nuclear power plants can generate a large amount of electricity, they can be very expensive to build and may pose security problems. Also, the disposal and storage of spent nuclear fuel can be an expensive and a highly contentious problem.
Wind driven generators use wind power to drive blades of a wind turbine. Sometimes the speed of the blade rotation is increased through a booster to aid the generator in producing electricity. However, the towers used to support wind turbines can be relatively complex and expensive. Also, wind power can be quite unstable when it is generated as the strength and direction of the wind can change frequently making it more difficult for energy to be accumulated. Wind power, while available, is also dependent on the weather and can be inefficient and relatively expensive.
Solar panels are another alternative to fossil fuels. Solar panels are comprised of several individual solar cells that collect solar radiation from the sun and actively convert that energy into usable electricity. Solar panels, however, can be quite costly, very low in efficiency and are unusable at night and on cloudy or stormy days. In addition, the amount of sunlight that arrives at the Earth's surface is not constant. It can depend on location, time of day, time of year, and weather conditions. Also, because the sun doesn't deliver much energy to any one place at any one time, a large surface area may be required to collect the energy at a useful rate.
While systems have been made and used that harness the energy incumbent in various sources, it is believed that no one prior to the inventor has made or used a system as described herein.
The drawings are not intended to be limiting in any way, and it is contemplated that various embodiments of the invention may be carried out in a variety of other ways, including those not necessarily depicted in the drawings. The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate several aspects of the present invention, and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention; it being understood, however, that this invention is not limited to the precise arrangements shown.